Travelcard Charger – Review

Back in March I did a small post about a portable battery pack, I was keeping an eye on over on Kickstarter, called the Travelcard Charger (see here), anyway I finally got my unit through, so after popping it on charge I thought I would give it a whirl.

Features.

The Travelcard Charger.

Dimensions: 3.58 x 2.44 x .16 inches (9.1 x 6.2 x .4 cm).

Weight: 1.5 ounces (42.5 grams).

Connector: USB to Micro-USB for charging, built-in cable for output to either iPhone/Micro USB.

Capacity: 1500 mAh.

Design.

The Travelcard charger is a credit card sized battery pack, ( well a little bit bigger than your average credit card ) made from aluminium, its designed to fit in your wallet or purse, It comes in a variety of colours: black, silver, red and blue. On the top edge of the charger is a micro usb port for charging the Travelcard a single on/off button and a multi colour led.

Built into the side of the Travelcard is a enclosed cable either lightening or micro USB, you decide which version is the one for you upon ordering.

Lightening cable version.

In Use.

So how much juice can a small battery like this provide for your smartphone? According to the TravelCard folks, it will charge an iPhone 5s up to about 51 percent and about 44% for your Android phone. OK that’s not a full charge, but can give you the added power you may need in an emergency at the end of the day, ensuring you can get those important calls and text’s get through.

TravelCard is definitely something I’m going to keep in my wallet for that emergency power, and I love that the micro USB cable (in my case) is built right in so I don’t have to carry a separate cable around.

Conclusion.

Easily carried in a wallet the TravelCard is very compact, the enclosed cable is MFi-certified and it has enough capacity to get you through an emergency. On the negative side, the Travelcard is on the more premium side of pricing (currently $39 £24 ) and there are a number of not-as-compact external battery packs that are half the price of the TravelCard. It’s up to you as to whether or not the extra portability of this battery pack is what you want, but my own opinion is it’s worth the premium price, as I know its going in my wallet to be completely forgotten about until that moment I need it.